World of O News
Where did the top runners lost time in the World Orienteering Championships Middle Final for the men? This article looks into the details – showing how Olav Lundanes (NOR) managed to decide the race against Gustav Bergman (SWE), early leader Emil Svensk (SWE) and Magne Dæhli (NOR).
Emil Svensk took the lead at the first control and stayed in front until control 2. The race lead then changed between Olav Lundanes and Svensk until the finish. See below for a graphical split times visualization of the time differences in the race.
Part 1: Svensk dominates to first TV control
Two of the runners in the battle for the medals lost time already to the very simple first control: Silver medalist Bergman lost 10 seconds to Svensk and 8 seconds to Lundanes. Dæhli 12 seconds and Hubmann even 22 seconds.
To control 2 Tranchand (finishing 6th) lost 8 seconds and Regborn (finishing far down on the list in the end) lost 12 seconds.
Another time loss for Dæhli, Hubmann and Tranchand to control 3: 9 seconds for Dæhli, 16 for Tranchand, 7 for Hubmann.
The routechoice lge to control 4 was quite interesting. Glibov and Lundanes went right and were the fastest on the leg. Svensk also goes right and loses only a few seconds. On the other hand Bergman loses 28(!) seconds, Basset 27 seconds and Hubmann even 57(!) seconds.
To control 5 Bergman gets up the speed again after the poor 4th leg – winning the leg with 5 seconds to Svensk with Lundanes losing 7 seconds, Hubmann 13 seconds and Tranchand 18 seconds.
Small time differences to the next few controls, but notably to the TV control Bergman and Dæhli run very fast, while Svensk loses 4 seconds, Lundanes 5 seconds and Basset even 7 seconds.
Summing up at the first TV-control, we have Svensk in the lead just ahead of Lundanes and Glibov. Bergman is down in 4th, already 29 seconds behind Svensk and 27 seconds behind Lundanes. Basset is down in 8th place at +0:42, Tranchand in 12th.
Hubmann is all the way down in 21st at +1:42! From the 9th control to the finish Hubmann loses only 48 seconds to Lundanes. Obviously his shape is good, this is all about technical performance.
| 1. | Emil Svensk | Sweden | 13:02 | (+0:00) | Total: 34:48 (4) |
| 2. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 13:04 | (+0:02) | Total: 34:18 (1) |
| 3. | Ruslan Glibov | Ukraine | 13:07 | (+0:05) | Total: 36:55 (11) |
| 4. | Gustav Bergman | Sweden | 13:31 | (+0:29) | Total: 34:29 (2) |
| 5. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 13:32 | (+0:30) | Total: 38:24 (18) |
| 6. | Florian Howald | Switzerland | 13:40 | (+0:38) | Total: 36:29 (8) |
| 7. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 13:43 | (+0:41) | Total: 34:47 (3) |
| 8. | Lucas Basset | France | 13:44 | (+0:42) | Total: 35:20 (5) |
| 9. | Andreas Kyburz | Switzerland | 13:49 | (+0:47) | Total: 36:37 (9) |
| 10. | Miika Kirmula | Finland | 13:52 | (+0:50) | Total: 36:15 (7) |
| 11. | Milos Nykodym | Czech Republic | 13:59 | (+0:57) | Total: 37:53 (15) |
| 12. | Frederic Tranchand | France | 14:00 | (+0:58) | Total: 36:09 (6) |
| 13. | Vojtech Kral | Czech Republic | 14:00 | (+0:58) | Total: 37:28 (14) |
| 14. | Oleksandr Kratov | Ukraine | 14:13 | (+1:11) | Total: 40:55 (35) |
| 15. | Aleksi Niemi | Finland | 14:19 | (+1:17) | Total: 36:59 (12) |
| 16. | Martin Regborn | Sweden | 14:19 | (+1:17) | Total: 39:02 (23) |
| 17. | Tue Lassen | Denmark | 14:24 | (+1:22) | Total: 38:04 (16) |
| 18. | Timo Sild | Estonia | 14:25 | (+1:23) | Total: 37:12 (13) |
| 19. | Ralph Street | Great Britain | 14:38 | (+1:36) | Total: 38:26 (19) |
| 20. | Gernot Ymsen | Austria | 14:40 | (+1:38) | Total: 38:19 (17) |
| 21. | Daniel Hubmann | Switzerland | 14:44 | (+1:42) | Total: 36:48 (10) |
Part 2: Lundanes takes over to second TV-control
Bergman runs a really bad leg after the first TV-control, losing 17 seconds due to a bad direction and/or micro-routechoice. Dæhli also loses 7 seconds here.
On the next leg Bergman is back, winning the leg with 2 seconds ahead of Lundanes. Here Kral (who was up in 13th place before this mistake) makes a big mistake and is out of the battle for a top result.
On the second routechoice leg on the course Bergman continues to run very fast – winning the leg with 15(!) seconds on a routechoice to the left. It does seem that running left is faster (and running too far right is definitely slower), but Bergman also has higher speed than the others, especially the last part towards the control. Maybe Bergman runs with a bit too high risk in this race? This is Lundanes’ worst leg, losing 27 seconds to Bergman. Several of the other top runners also lose significant time.
Some time losses for top runners also on the control before the TV-control – control 15. Here Svensk and Dæhli notably lose 10 and 12 seconds, respectively, by going too far to the right.
The TV control (control 16) was were Emil Svensk lost the gold medal. 39 seconds lost. Live on TV. Due to a wrong micro-routechoice, going to the right instead of left or straight. That hurts. Basset, Lundanes and Dæhli run well here, which Bergman loses 16 seconds (to Bassed), Glibov 32 seconds.
Thus we now have Olav Lundanes in the lead at the second TV-control – 14 seconds ahead of Gustav Bergman. Svensk who looked like a clear gold favourite is now down in third at +29, and looks to be more in the silver/bronze battle along with Basset (+0:38), Dæhli (+0:49) and Glibov (+0:51 – after having lost 32 seconds on this leg).
| 1. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 24:11 | (+0:00) | Total: 34:18 (1) |
| 2. | Gustav Bergman | Sweden | 24:25 | (+0:14) | Total: 34:29 (2) |
| 3. | Emil Svensk | Sweden | 24:40 | (+0:29) | Total: 34:48 (4) |
| 4. | Lucas Basset | France | 24:49 | (+0:38) | Total: 35:20 (5) |
| 5. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 25:00 | (+0:49) | Total: 34:47 (3) |
| 6. | Ruslan Glibov | Ukraine | 25:02 | (+0:51) | Total: 36:55 (11) |
| 7. | Florian Howald | Switzerland | 25:13 | (+1:02) | Total: 36:29 (8) |
| 8. | Frederic Tranchand | France | 25:20 | (+1:09) | Total: 36:09 (6) |
| 9. | Miika Kirmula | Finland | 25:47 | (+1:36) | Total: 36:15 (7) |
| 10. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 25:50 | (+1:39) | Total: 38:24 (18) |
Last part: Close battle for gold
Looking at the map, it looks like the rest of the course from control 16 to the finish is purely running and no orienteering. This is partly correct, but there are still time differences of 5-10 seconds between the top runners. Most notable is the leg to control 19 where Lundanes loses 15(!) seconds to Bergman. This seems to be partly about running speed, but also partly about finding the good places to run in the terrain. It looks like going slightly left like Lundanes does is really tough, probably due to high under vegetation, but it is not possible to see this directly from the map.
At the arena passage (control 19) we have the following standing:
| 1. | Gustav Bergman | Sweden | 29:00 | (+0:00) | Total: 34:29 (2) |
| 2. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 29:06 | (+0:06) | Total: 34:18 (1) |
| 3. | Emil Svensk | Sweden | 29:22 | (+0:22) | Total: 34:48 (4) |
| 4. | Lucas Basset | France | 29:31 | (+0:31) | Total: 35:20 (5) |
| 5. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 29:34 | (+0:34) | Total: 34:47 (3) |
| 6. | Ruslan Glibov | Ukraine | 29:46 | (+0:46) | Total: 36:55 (11) |
Bergman leads the battle for gold with 6 seconds. Svensk leads the battle for bronze with 9 seconds to Bassed and 12 seconds to Dæhli.
A decisive leg for the battle for bronze is the uphill leg to control 20. Glibov loses 1:17 and is definitely out of the medal battle – so is Basset with his 25 second miss on the control. Bergman loses 4 seconds to Lundanes and is now only 2 seconds ahead.
Another 6 seconds time loss for Bergman to control 21, and suddenly Lundanes is in the lead with 3 seconds. Dæhli also runs better than his competition, and gets closer and closer to Svensk in bronze position (now only 3 seconds behind).
The downhill leg to control 22 is not really tricky, but under high competition pressure it may still give some challenges. Lundanes wins the leg ahead of Dæhli – those Norwegians know how to finish races. Svensk loses 5 seconds, Bergman 8 seconds. And the medal battles are both won by the Norwegians.
This gives the following Top 6-list:
| 1. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 34:18 | (+0:00) |
| 2. | Gustav Bergman | Sweden | 34:29 | (+0:11) |
| 3. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 34:47 | (+0:29) |
| 4. | Emil Svensk | Sweden | 34:48 | (+0:30) |
| 5. | Lucas Basset | France | 35:20 | (+1:02) |
| 6. | Frederic Tranchand | France | 36:09 | (+1:51) |
Auto GPS-analysis for the medal battles
